International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   What is the relationship between energy and security, and how has it changed over time? More importantly, for the purposes of this essay, what have scholars written about the relationship over the years? Which topics has the literature emphasized, and what has been neglected? Energy and energy policy are frequently studied independently of security. Since early in the twentieth century, however, the two subjects have often been closely related in practice. Industrialized and industrializing states without reliable access to adequate supplies of energy at affordable prices have often felt insecure. And, in response, they have often taken strong measures, up to and including the use of military force, in order to provide for their energy security. Despite the often close nature of the relationship between energy and security, scholarly interest in the subject has waxed and waned. Indeed, the literature has been driven to a remarkable extent by current events. Little was written on energy and security before the early 1970s. Each of the two oil shocks of that decade, however, triggered a large outpouring of works. During much of the 1980s and the 1990s, when energy prices were low and relatively stable, scholarly interest again faded, only to be followed by a new and still continuing wave of studies in response to the renewed turmoil in energy markets that ... log in or subscribe to read full text